Everything you need to know about Safety Flooring
What is Safety Flooring
Safety Flooring is a high grade vinyl flooring which offers a high level of sustainable slip resistance to give an ultra safe floor. These products are extremely durable and are designed to be fitted in public areas such as Canteens, Schools, changing rooms and clinical areas. Safety Flooring needs to look good and work hard.
Safety Flooring is used where there is a risk of spillage or wetness and it is used to protect against an unsafe trip Hazard.
Generally Safety Flooring is 2mm thick but ‘Altro’ have introduced 2.5mm, 3mm and 4mm thicknesses for areas that need Harder wearing and resistant to mechanical damage and chemicals.
What is slip Resistance
Enhanced slip resistance is achieved by increasing the friction between the foot and the floor. This friction increase is obtained through the combination of safety aggregates and particles within the floor such as aluminium oxide, recycled natural aggregates silicon carbide and quartz.
When a contaminant such as water goes onto the surface of the floor, this creates a ‘squeeze film’ between foot and floor. Safety Flooring is designed to provide enough roughness to break through this squeeze film and ensure foot-to-floor contact. However, a flooring without particles and just an emboss will be a relatively smooth surface, and in ‘water wet ‘conditions will provide a high risk of the user slipping on the floor due to the squeeze film not being broken.
What makes Safety Flooring
A good Safety Floor product should retain its performance characteristics and appearance, practicing outstanding durability and abrasion resistance. In terms of safety floor credentials, all products specified to provide slip resistance in wet conditions should meet EN 13845, the European standard for particle-based safety flooring.
Product claims that show conformance to other flooring standards, such as EN ISO 10581/10582, EN 649, EN 548, EN 12199, and EN 1817, mean the flooring is not classified as a true slip-resistant surface, and therefore is not a Safety Floor.
To meet the criteria for the EN 13845 standard, Safety Flooring must pass the 50,000 cycles abrasion test (EN 660-2) to demonstrate the longevity of the aggregates and their performance, ensuring the long-term, sustainable slip- resistance of the product. This stringent test procedure involves constant cycles of abrasion under pressure, with continuous application of grit to replicate accelerated wear over time.
Sustainable performance is key when measuring the slip resistance of Safety Flooring, ranges can also be independently assessed and certified by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), indicating that the products are fit for their intended use for at least 10 years provided that they are installed to the manufacturer’s instructions. Generally, if safety flooring is used in appropriate areas and maintained correctly, the slip resistance will tend to improve with age. Over time, the more abrasive aggregates will be left behind, and will still be carrying out the job of imparting the necessary slip resistance in years to come.
Altro vs Polysafe Saftety Flooring
Altro and Polysafe are the leading brands in safety flooring, personally I prefer Altro for a number of reasons.
- Bigger range of products – The stand out product here is the Altro Xpresslay. The award-winning Altro XpressLay is the world’s first ever adhesive-free safety floor. Its still the only Safety Flooring of its kind. Its a fantastic product.
- Altro Walkway – Personally this is my favourite range from all of the manufacturers. Altro Walkway has a fantastic colour choice, it is very modern, looks fantastic when fitted and is excellent value for money.
- Both brands have very good technical data and are both available online.
Maintaining Safety Flooring
Correct and thorough cleaning is an essential part of floor maintenance to ensure that your Safety Flooring is kept safe and clean throughout its life.
Feel free to see our cleaning guide on ‘how to clean Safety Flooring”
Safety Flooring in Leicestershire
if you would like to no more about safety flooring email the team at info@dcsflooring.smashingselfemployment.com
DCS Flooring is the leading supplier and installer of Safety Flooring in Leicestershire and around the East Midlands.